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A full and proper write-up is forthcoming as I try to piece together the madness of this game which I must time shift. Suffice it to say, this game had more twists and turns than the last 90 minutes of The Dark Knight Rises (topical!).
Matt Cain gave up five earned runs for the third time this season (flyball pitcher!), hit a home run, gave up a home run to the opposing pitcher, Cole Hamels, and then plunked Cole in his next at bat. Matt Cain has a nasty streak in him that comes out from time to time.
Finally (for now), I decree that Buster Posey is now the most lickable object in Philadelphia.
**Updated: Full write-up after the jump.**
I wanted to get cute and compare this game to The Dark Knight Rises (trust me: the plot and this game summary have a lot of similarities). Then, I wanted to write a straightforward analysis about the various important aspects of the game (Gregor missed the sign! Gregor executed the safety squeeze perfectly!). I figured that second angle worked best because, hot damn, the Giants ventured into a time warp and faced off against a Phillies' team from sometime between 2008-2010 (sans Jayson Werth) and came out victorious. As I've written before, this combination of personnel is really working out for our favorite baseball team, and today's game is a perfect example of why they are so successful: most of the players can do more than one thing and somehow all their skill sets compliment each other. They're less of a "team" in the interpersonal chemistry sense of the word (their personalities, collectively, are not nearly as strong as the 2010 team's, for example) and far more in the roster construction/talent sense. It's chocolate + peanut butter, not Katniss + Gale.
Instead, I'm going to talk some more about Buster Posey, who is awesome and who does awesome things on the baseball diamond. He *is* our Batman. He was crucial to today's win. He is fantastic. I don't even know if we could heap more praise upon him.
Instead, I'm going to talk some more about Melky Cabrera. That guy... that guy, he's just... he keeps on delivering. We're well beyond the point of standing there with arms folded waiting for the melk to spoil. We've definitely got to be thinking about him sustaining this for the rest of the season and, with luck, deep into the playoffs. We can certainly consider the possibility that next year won't match this year or last year, but we've got to at least daydream about the possibility that this could be a thing that lasts all year long. That's pretty damned cool. This is the Giants' return on Jonathan Sanchez, making it one of the best "selling low" I've seen since a producer let me take any of the Emmy screeners I wanted and found the entire second season of Battlestar Galactica in the pile.
And then I wanted to throw in three final quick points before letting you get on with your Saturday night:
1) Even when Matt Cain's bad, he's still pretty good. He didn't look sharp, but he didn't look bad. MATT CAIN. And, just so we're all on the same page, MATT CAIN joins pizza, sex, and Star Trek on the list of "Things That Even When They're Bad They're Still Pretty Good". Also, let's remember that Cain has a mean streak in him. Total "mean move" plunking the pitcher who homered off of you in his next plate appearance.
2) Angel Pagan had a .590 OPS in 157 plate appearances (so, since June 1st) heading into today's game and then he got ejected arguing balls and strikes. He has been bad. Brandon Belt has an .806 OPS in 127 plate appearances over the same period of time. Angel Pagan is "scuffling", Brandon Belt might get sent down to AAA or traded to the football team playing in Gotham City when that bomb goes off (IT'S IN THE TRAILERS -- THAT'S NOT A SPOILER). I don't want to argue about Brandon Belt. This is a perfect example of WHAT MY EYEBALLS SEE vs. WHAT THE NUMBERS SAY.
3) The Giants are 7-1 coming out of the All-Star Break and it still doesn't *feel* like they're playing their best baseball or are that the team is the "best" version of itself. To me, that's a pretty cool thought. If fans of other teams agree with that feeling, then that's gotta be a terrifying thought to them.